Hardwood flooring generally consists of a number of juxtaposed elongated tongue-and-groove planks interlocked with each other, and then fastened in position to a subjacent subfloor. To fasten these hardwood planks to the subfloor of a room (composed for example of plywood plates and/or floor joists), it is known to use mallet-operated fastener driving tools. These fastener driving tools, or nailers, generally comprise a main body with a floor-engageable shoe mounted to its bottom surface, upon which the tool rests against a hardwood plank prior to discharging a fastener in the latter. These fastener driving tools also comprise a magazine containing fasteners in the form of metallic L- or T-shaped barbed cleats, or staples, and feeding them to a fastener discharge mechanism, which can be activated when a trigger thereof is struck with a mallet. Such nailers are generally made of heavy-duty materials such as cast aluminium, and are therefore overall substantially weighty.
In general, a workman must position and secure the hardwood planks to the subfloor one at a time, to gradually form the hardwood flooring. After having positioned a plank on the floor in order for it to be interlocked with the other surrounding tongue-and-groove planks, the workman lays his nailer atop this plank and then strikes the nailer's trigger with a mallet. This causes the nailer to discharge a fastener through the hardwood plank to secure the latter to the subfloor.
The above steps are then repeated until the hardwood flooring is entirely installed. The workman positions a plank, nails it down to the subfloor, and then repeats this procedure to set up the whole flooring, meanwhile dragging the heavy nailer in one hand, and the mallet in his other hand.
As useful as they may be, these heavy nailers are generally not very ergonomic. Indeed, in addition to having to move it around from a nailing point to another, the workman generally has to bend downwardly in an awkward stance to lay it atop a hardwood plank and to strike heavily on the nailer's trigger with his mallet to activate it. Sustained usage thereof hence generally causes the workman to quickly become tired and feel discomfort, especially in the arms and back.
Also, another consequence of the substantial weight of these nailers is that they are hard to precisely manipulate.